The Elvaston Circuit - Part 03
w/e 26 April 2015
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
The final mile
of this three mile Walking for Health route resumes at the Golden
Gates (left) in the Elvaston Castle Country Park. After passing
through the gates a choice of paths is available around an oval
of grass (above) but both come together to continue along the
long narrow drive (right) towards the centre of the park. It
is easy to imagine whilst walking along here, coaches and horses
making their way to and from the house at the far end carrying
the gentry in times gone by.
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We left the drive at the far end to pass through the topiary
garden to reach the house. Sadly some visitors with their children
seemed oblivious to the requests to keep of the grass and were
tripping through the box hedges as though they were in a maze
searching for the way out.
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Much of the house is shrouded with scaffolding and sheeting as
work is carried out but we turned left and headed for the fortified
entrance into the courtyard.
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The castle is actually a Gothic style mansion, formerly the home
of the Earls of Harrington and it stands adjacent to the church
dedicated to St Bartholomew which can be seen just over the wall
as we turned into the courtyard. The intention was to pass through
the courtyard to the other side of the house and proceed to the
car park along the south side of the lake. The work taking place
though meant that the exit was closed so we continued through
the courtyard, past the visitor centre and back towards the path
to the River Derwent.
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Turning off that path though we walked past a field where someone
had been busy carving animal figures on old tree stumps. The
mansion and other buildings can be seen in the distance together
with some of the scaffolding.
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This path also
took us past another garden where topiary was again much in evidence
(left) before leading to a footbridge at the end of the lake
where a number of people had gathered (above) to decide where
to go next. Our choice was much simpler as we knew where we were
headed so we crossed the bridge and turned right following paths
through the trees and across more bridges (right).
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Now on the north side of the lake we walked alongside the edge
of the water and, like many more, enjoyed the fine spring weather,
the budding plants and the wild birds on the lake.
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This route also took us past some of the rock formations that
are a feature on this side of the lake and which entice many,
especially children, to climb and explore.
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There were many and various views across the lake and this one
is typical showing more people on the grass on the south side
who were also enjoying this pleasant afternoon.
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Eventually we turned away from the lake and followed one of several
paths through the woods to the car park to complete our walk.
Back to Part 02
To see a map/aerial view of the whole route in a new window follow
this link.
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